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WEEK 3

 

Computer Controlled Cutting

This week assignment is based on Computer Controlled Cutting. The machines that used for cutting process are Vinyl Cutting Machines and Laser Cutting Machines.

1.Vinyl Cutting :

 

A vinyl cutter is a type of computer-controlled machine. Small vinyl cutters look like a regular printer. The computer controls the movement of a sharp cutter and the material that you need to cut . There was no specific project to do in this assignment but I decided to make my own sticker.

 

 

Silhouette cameo is our vinyl cutter in Kuwait FabLab

 

For this machine I used Silhouette Studio software for defining the design area for cutting after I Save my design as .PNG file which is the suitable format for the mentioned software.

 

Step 1: Sticker Designing

I used inkscape to design my stickers as shown in photos below

 

As final steep of destining we need to chose the right file format that suit the available cutting machine in my case the the format was .png       Download

 

Step 2 : cutter hardware and software installation

 

system configuration

 

 

Defining the toolpath to the blade for cutting

 

 

 

 

 

Loading stickers paper materials

 

 

 

 

 

Loading files to the machine and start cutting

 

 

Step 3 Finishing

I did this steep twice due to using a very strong sticky tape in the 1st attempt. In the 2nd attempt i used less sticky tape and its worked very well.

 

1st attempt

 

Removing the unnecessary part of the sticker

 

 

 

 

I Placed the sticker to a tape inorder to save the design alignment

 

 

 

 

 

Tape was too strong therefore I couldn't remove it

 

 

 

2nd attempt

 

 

I make another sticker and yous transparency and less sticky tape

 

 

After placing the sticker at the wanted loction I removed the tape carefully and had this final result

 

 

2.Laser Cutting

 

 

OUR MACHINE

 

 

Laser cutting is a technology that uses a laser to cut materials, and is typically used for industrial manufacturing applications, but is also starting to be used by schools, small businesses, and hobbyists. Laser cutting works by directing the output of a high-power laser most commonly through optics. The laser optics and CNC (computer numerical control) are used to direct the material or the laser beam generated .Wikipedia

 

 

 

Control panel : this is the part that allow the user to operate the machine.

 

Step 1 Parametric Design :

I used the same software that I use for the sticker designing inkscape As final steep of destining I exported the file as PNG to suit our Laser cutting machine.

 

 

Download .dxf       Download .png

 

 

Step 2: Loading the design on the laser cutting machine

 

 

 

Step 3: Test the quality before cutting :

 

 

 

Step 4:  Cutting

 

Step 5 Assembling :

I did this steep twice due to wrong file exporting in the 1st attempt which expand the sizing due to wrong exporting process. in the second attempt I exported the file in a good way that saves the measurements but unfortunately the fitting was not possible due to a difference in size in between male and female slots.

 

 

 

 

 

1st attempt :

 

 

Sizes mistake

 

Sizes mistake (see the slots)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 2nd  attempt :

Here I exported the file with good size but the fitting didn't work.

 

 

3rd Attempt : Using a parametric tool

What is Parametric modeling ?

Parametric is a term used to describe a dimensions ability to change the shape of model geometry as soon as the dimension value is modified.

Feature-based is a term used to describe the various components of a model. For example, a part can consists of various types of features such as holes, grooves, fillets, and chamfers. A feature is the basic unit of a parametric solid model.

I used onshape to do the laser cutting project as shown bellow after I realized that inkscape is not suitable to do this kind of projects because it need a perfect matching shapes (male&female) therefore I used onshape.com as parametric tool.

I took the measurements of the acrylic board that I have (2.7mm) then I made the design by using onshape.com. I made the slots 2.7mm to make the perfectly matching.   Download

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/e5caf6a7c9769e026ce91049/w/6951dcb141cccb64588576ca/e/d23aeada98fab4cea8a36adf

 

 

 

 

 

After designed layout of my design I add a variable as shown in red circle to control the press fit slots  size base on the material that I am going to use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here I assigned a value to this variable

 

 

 

 

Here I defined the slot size as (#S) which is equal to my variable

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here I am testing the changes in slots by using using  values

 

 

Here is my final design before cutting

 

While cutting

 

Final result

 

 

 

Things that I learned :

 

Parametric modeling benefits :  “concurrent-engineering.co.uk Blog ”